In an interview in San Francisco with Sarah and Vinnie, Penn made the statement that his production company also works for David Blaine. In the case of the buried alive stunt, Penn said that they told him that they would set up all the usual tricks, so that he could get out, stretch, etc. Blaine declined, saying that he really wanted to stay in the coffin for seven days.
Apparently, he was able to. Penn said that the hardest part of the “trick” was to keep the press far enough away from Blaine so that they couldn’t smell him.
This lends a little more credance (at least to me) that the ice stunt went off pretty much as described. It really was a block of ice and he really was standing there for 2.5 days. Yes, his body heat would warm the internal temperature of the block of ice. But, he was sopping wet when he came out if water below your body temperature stays on your body for any length of time, you’re going to get chilled (try diving into a 70F pool and see how long you can stay in there).
As to whether there was a plastic lining, I think that would be hard to do. The ice block was “built” in plain sight. Also, since he was soaking wet when he came out, it makes it harder for me to believe that he was protected by any plastic.
At first I though the ice thing was a magic trick, that he would lick the ice & then use pee to make a hole so he could get out.
BTW, they added plenty of ice as the days went on as it melted.
I have been against Blaine for a lil while. Especially his specials, since he cuts them up big time to garner the most amazing looks to correspond with his ‘feats’.
I have commented on him before but in layman’s terms it is as thus, Blaine is a ok closeup man and carder. I met him a couple of times at Magic Castle in LA. He is definitly not inventing new tricks, just reworking old ones. He seems to love using speed decks, and the old mind reading trick with several variations on where the name appears (passing car, arm, dollar bill, etc.) He does not use many props though the ring in the bottle in the last special is a complete prop trick and is ok at stripping (stealing watches, rings). The Balducci levitation is completely impossible the way Blaine shows it. He only gets away with it with crowd cuts and (I am sorry to say) wire work.
There are a LOT of better magicians out there. One of which I always suggest when someone says something about Blaine is Ricky Jay. Jay is a absolute master of the craft and extremely entertaining with stories of grifters and magics. There are no freaking lights, not poof and smoke screens, no tigers and no stupid music. Just a rather portly guy, a deck of cards (his 52 assistants as he likes to call them), and a personality. He is also has the unique talent of snapping a card so fast as to bury it into the skine of a watermelon (really does it too, no trick). I heartily ask anyone who wants to see fantastic work to see him in his one man show, Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants
Yes, this bugged me to know end. I do the Balducci, and though I don’t do it often, I can pull it off. But I’ve seen guys that have been doing it for a long time do it really well (Paul Harris does a great version). Then I see Blaine do it with a cut to make it look like he’s doing it amazingly high. The term “street magic” shouldn’t even enter into it if you’re going to cut in pre-produced stuff.
And yeah, I really like Ricky Jay. I saw him perform a trick of Erdnase’s and it was wonderful. I forget which station it was on, but he had a special too. He’s a great performer.
Not really worth opening a new thread so I thought I’d just bump this one.
Does anyone know how he does that wrist-twisting trick as seen on the X-files?
Are you guys saying that the freaked-out reaction of people we see on the street when he, say, levitates himself is actually the reaction to something else?
How does his do that trick where the name of the special person of the guy he meets is burned into this arm? (or comparable tricks)